Vivian Holloway

Access to education in developing nations with a focus on quality

ISU
Global perspectives
Access to education in developing nations with a focus on quality
Mr. Babcock

Vivian Holloway

Access to education in developing nations with a focus on quality

Table of Contents

Preface 3

Background ........................ 6

Expert . 8

Role of Control 9

Logic of Evil ....11

Case Study 1 13

Case Study 2 15

Case Study 3 18

Syrian Example 20

Organizations Helping 23

Ties Back to Canada 25

Solutions 28
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Preface
The lack of education in developing nations is a dreadful issue. 775 million adults
worldwide are illiterate, with almost 500 million of them being women. 171 million children in
developing countries are inhibited by malnutrition by the time they reach age five, which likely
impacts their ability to learn. Only two percent of humanitarian aid goes to education (25)
Education is a basic right for all of humankind. (18) Sadly, in developing countries there
are almost two billion children who do not receive a quality education. The United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Director-General, Irina Bokova stated, "Access
to education is not the only crisis poor quality is holding back learning even for those who
make it to school, (7)
Not only does the lack of education, as well as quality of education, have a negative
impact on the individual, but it extends its reach to society as a whole. Living in North America,
education is something ordinary, expected, and taken for granted. Opportunity for education, as
well as quality of education, in developing countries is a much greater challenge. North
Americans expect, and are accustomed to quality education, facilities and teachers. In
developing nations this is not the case. Developing nations lack appropriate education systems
that train individuals to contribute to society. It has been proven that there is a direct connection
between the economy and the quality of education of the citizens (15). In some countries, parents
need their children to work in the fields to help them earn income for survival; therefore, they do
not receive a basic education. The government does not emphasize the importance of education
to this population, so unfortunately the students do not get a proper education, nor the incentive
to desire it. Some countries spend more money annually on military than they do in education
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development (23). Consequently, a nations economy and people suffer. In developing nations,
teachers are paid abnormally small wages. This pay is not sufficient to sustain a decent standard
of living, and as a result teachers are rare. The scarcity of teachers creates classrooms where the
student to teacher ratio is completely unbalanced. Other children live in war torn areas where it is
extremely difficult to receive an education given their circumstances, never mind a quality one.
In these devastated areas, the children who are being denied quality education may be the future
leaders of their countries. It is a known fact that 795 million adults are illiterate and do not have
the awareness necessary to improve their and their childrens, living conditions (12)
Without a doubt education is essential in the modern society, and in developing nations
education systems need to be significantly improved if a country is going to prosper. Education
is known as the basic building block of every society. There are no nations that have ever
achieved fast and stable economic growth without a forty percent literacy rate (8). For example,
it has been proven when education and food security are connected. When primary school
attendance of rural children doubled, it resulted in a twenty-five percent rise in food security. We
as humans should care about the lack of education in developing countries because this affects
the well-being of humanity as a whole. We as humans should understand that the rights to a
proper education are being violated, and we should care because uneducated people could have
the potential to be untapped resources.
People without a quality education could have the potential and the creativity to solve world
issues and better the world. However, if they remain improperly educated, they can do little in
the way of contributing to society and bettering humanity. This has the potential to affect
developed countries such as our own. If countries cannot support themselves, more developed
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nations are likely to give up resources to help support them. Instead of counties supporting them
through sending money, we as a nation could help teach them to better their education systems,
and in return they could advance their economy and food security. In short, developing nations
that know how to run education systems could save us developed countries money in the long
term. We as individuals should also care about lack of education in developing nations because
every child in the world is entitled to an education.
As a result of many factors, children are not getting the quality education they have the right to,
and they as individuals are more likely to live in poverty and not contribute to society. It is
evident why education is important to improving societies. An example of quality education
discussed throughout this paper includes how some children are only sent to school for a short
amount of time, but their education is still deemed proper. Other examples include children who
have been in school for many years and going into secondary school can still barely read at a
grade two levels as the quality of their elementary school education was not adequate (25).

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Background
In the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund Charter Article 28: (Right to education) states
All children have the right to a primary education, which should be free (17). Wealthy countries
should help poorer countries achieve this right. Discipline in schools should respect childrens
dignity. For children to benefit from education, schools must be run in an orderly way without
the use of violence. Any form of school discipline should take into account the child's human
dignity. Therefore, governments must ensure that school administrators review their discipline
policies and eliminate any discipline practices involving physical or mental violence, abuse or
neglect
Education in developing countries has not been their focus. In return they have fallen behind
western culture and this has resulted in it becoming a global issue. Education was not always
accessible and valued as much in society as it is today. Education in developing nations was not
considered important until these nations understood the power of education. The power of
education can help a countrys economy significantly through raising individuals productivity;
as well as improving the quality of life by enriching peoples knowledge of themselves and the
world around them. The majority of developing countries have economic issues such as lack of
governing bodies to provide safety standards and provision of emergency services (4). Through
education this can be solved.
In general, progress has been made in enrolling children in school around the world. In the last
two hundred years, the numbers of children enrolled in primary school globally went from two
hundred and three million to seven hundred million (2). It is clearly evident that the lack of
access to education in developing countries is being addressed but not the issues of the education
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systems themselves. The gap in accesses to education between developing and developed nations
is starting to become smaller and slowly improve.
It is believed that some of the reasons that education development started in regions such as
Europe and North America in the mid eighteen hundreds is because of the new changing work
force requirements that came up at the time of the industrial revolution. As well as education
institutes role in bringing nationalism and community identity. The United Nations believe
education is a global fundamental right of freedom. All children should have the right and
opportunities to education (13).
After the end of World War Two, Africa, Asia and Latin America (29) all started to join in and
follow the examples provided by Europe, the United States and Canada. They all started
analyzing the state of global education.

Expert
Rebecca Winthrop is a known senior fellow and director of the Center for Universal Education.
She is the former head of education for the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid
NGO. Her studies focus on the education crisis in developing countries (5). She directs
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governments, foundations, and corporations on education and development issues. Dr. Winthrop
spent 15 years working in the field of education for displaced and migrant communities and most
recently as the head of education for the International Rescue Committee. She was responsible
for the organizations education effort in over 20 conflict-affected countries, some of which
include Afghanistan, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Uganda
(11).
In one of her lectures she discusses the types of children who are out of school in developing
nations. They conclude that youth in war torn areas and/or girls who live in poor communities
are most often denied the right to education. Another issue she brings up is the quality of
education. She gives examples of how this is evident through extremely poor reading skills of
older students and community members. For example, the children of Uganda going into
secondary school can barely read at a grade two levels (11). She goes on to further explain that
children are not learning skills that are vital for the jobs of tomorrow. She believes strongly that
they are lacking critical thinking and team work skills.
Rebecca Winthrop has been involved in many organizations trying to help the issues the
developing countrys face through education. By being the head of education for the
International Rescue Committees currently as well as having field experience in Sierra Leone,
Kenya and Liberia. Organizations she has been involved in include:Collaborative to Harness
Ambition and Resources for Girls Education, Michelle Obamas Let Girls Learn initiative, the
World Economic Forums Global Agenda Council for Education and its New Vision for
Education project Steering Committee, UN secretary-generals Global Education First (11).

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Role of control
Those who have control over the situation of lack of education as well as quality in developing
countries are members of government. The government in developing countries has the power to
better their economies through education. This can be done through properly educating children
by upgrading their facilities and training teachers, in addition to having more teachers to balance
out the student to teacher ratio introduced earlier (2). Sadly, most of these countries do not have
the resources to implement education as well as a fundamental curriculum throughout their
nation. Another example of a group that currently has control over the situation in their own
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countries includes Europe and North America. The countries of these continents have high
education rates and are in return for the most part doing well economically.
The citizens in developing countries need to be the ones to benefit from higher quality education
and strive to continue and improve this system. They can do this by sending their children to
school as often as possible and promoting quality education. The government can also promote
more growth in teachers by paying them more. The governments in developing nations need to
take more of an interest, and have more control in general, over education systems. Some
developing countries spend more on military annually than money put into the education system
(25). Less than one percent of what is spent on weapons every year was needed to put every
child through school by the year two thousand, but sadly this does not happen.
Many people care about the issue of lack of education in developing nations. This includes
citizens in developing nations, the governments of the nations themselves, various world
organizations, as well as individuals who feel strongly about all children deserving the right to a
quality education. The government and citizens themselves care about the issue because
thorough adequate education of the people their county will benefit. The countries will benefit
with a better economy. With a better economy, the country could possibly slowly make its way
from a developing country to a developed country. Without fundamental rethinking of current
approaches to education it will take developing nations roughly one hundred years to catch up to
the standards of educational levels in developed countries in 2015 (16). If developing countries
continue on the path of sending kids to school to get educated, but then takes it a step further to
improve the quality of their education and better their nation.

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People who should care include the country, government and citizens like previously discussed.
But humanity in general should also care too. Humanity should care, if we are compassionate
towards the disadvantages and right to quality education. Another example of why we should
care includes all the children who are uneducated have the potential to be untapped resources.

Logic of Evil
. Lack of education systems in developing nations is an issue that is slowly starting to be
resolved. It was a problem in the first place due to lack of access but solutions are slowly starting
to surface. Developing nations today have an increased level of accessibility. Now they just need
to enhance the quality of education systems. Logic of evil could be identified through the
corruption of government in developing countries. Money that should be dispersed into the
education system sometimes can be missed-placed. The government makes decisions based on
their agenda and sometimes this does not allow the trickle down of money to the education field,
needed to directly help the nations people.

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Governments for the most part would like their people to become educated as it improves their
economy and image on all fronts. Their citizens can have better jobs and contribute to society.
Educating the people could also slowly start to make the difference from a developing country to
a developed country.
The issue lack of education systems in developing nations can be linked to the media. Media has
done a fantastic job of promoting the issue of the lack of education systems in developing
nations. The media has helped create websites, Facebook pages, and even videos talking about
the issue and what we can do to help (20). There are multiple organizations that allow
individuals to donate money to help children and students in other countries, a portion of the
money that is donated goes towards the childs education. An example of an organization that
does this is Compassion for Kids (20). Rights to education were being violated in the past.
Now the rights to education are starting to become more accepted globally. Children, like I said
before, are receiving greater access to education. But this is only half the battle. They lack
resources such as supplies, facilities, and teachers (21). The right to education in developing
countries has increased over the last few years, now it is the quality of education they are getting
that should be our focus. With a more intensive and broad curriculum, these countries would be
preparing their citizens for a wider range of jobs. A more diverse economy is more prosperous,
and will benefit the country years down the road. Economics and education go hand in hand, and
without proper systems in place the developing nations cannot greatly improve their economic
situations (32).

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Case Study - Haiti

Haiti is a Caribbean country that is located beside the Dominican Republic on the shared island
of Hispaniola.
The population of Haiti is 10.3 million people with the national language being Creole and
French. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80% of the population
living in poverty. The majority of the population are farmers who farm coffee, sugarcane,
mangoes and rice (26). The country Haiti relies on foreign aid from not for profit organizations.
Many citizens are busy trying to survive the day to day life and wish they could have an
education.
Those that have an opportunity and the means to receive a secondary education end up leaving
the island for a better place to live (21). Actually, 80-86% of people who have a secondary
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education leave the country, which leaves an overall 8% who stay on the island that are educated
beyond the primary level.
Very few have the opportunity to receive a secondary education and leave neither assisting nor
helping the improvements that need to be done in Haiti. Anyone that could teach with a higher
level of knowledge is able to find more lucrative occupations away from the island. Teachers are
paid quite low and therefore the country does not have enough qualified people.
The education in Haiti lacks the accessibility, resources, and financial support to sustain social
and economic development. In 1982 over 65% of the population over ten years of age did not
have the opportunity to go to school. The Education Minister Joel Desrosiers mentioned that
with the current budget and facilities they do not have enough space or teachers for 75% of the
student population (26). This means Haiti has the capacity for 25% of its potential students. The
government would like to see an improvement, and is working on a plan to enroll 1.5 million
students into classroom. This is a ideal plan however it will require large sums of money that the
country does not have, as well as building new facilities to accommodate the number of students
they expect to enroll.
Currently Haiti is struggling with the number of teachers as well as their level of experience.
Most private school teachers dont even have 9 years of schooling. Approximately one-third have
less, and some are practically illiterate (21). At this moment Haiti does not have the privilege of
being selective when choosing teachers.
Education in Haiti has been suffering since the catastrophic 2010 earthquake which ranked a
magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale. This earthquake affected the education system as many

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buildings were wiped out. The government was forced to use its financial budget almost solely
on disaster relief, leaving education for a later date.
Some of the possible solutions Haiti could turn to would be reaching out to developed nations to
ask for educators to help train the teachers of Haiti and give them the skills they need. Since the
earthquake there has been extensive involvement with international organizations that are trying
to implement solid infrastructures, to grow the communities of Haiti which will in return
strengthen the education system. The government should publicly stress the importance of
education and promote it to its citizens to raise national support and awareness. The government
should also encourage the citizens that do receive good education to stay and train others in the
nation rather than going off to other countries.
Case study Ethiopia
Ethiopia is currently struggling with the issue of lack of quality education as well as the number
of people going to school to get an education. Financial distress is one of the reasons why
education demand might be low. Poor families still must meet essential needs such as food,
water, shelter, meaning education often comes as a second thought, if it comes at all. Families
must provide tuition, books, and school supplies in order for their children to go to school.
Transportation, as well as suitable clothes, also costs money and can be an impossible hurdle for
low income families already stretching the budget to meet the basic needs of life. Few parents
can pay for their childrens educations and the extra costs that can go along with it, but those
who ordinarily may be able to are not due to a lack of financial options. In North America,
families have the option to spread large costs over many years, or use credit from a bank. These

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types of financial opportunities make education possible for low-income families in developed
countries, but are unavailable in many developing nations.
Enrolment in schools throughout the sub-Saharan region where Ethiopia is located is roughly 50
percent (25). The primary school completion rate is 20 percent and widespread illiteracy over 60
percent. Some of the ways this problem is trying to be addressed is through people responding to
the country's political instability and the government's failure to provide basic education for
many rural children by taking full accountability for running rural schools. Ethiopia sits on the
horn of Africa and is known to be landlocked. Mulatu Teshome is the current Ethiopian
president. In places such as Ethiopia, children who do and can afford to go to school still do not
have basic educational skills such as reading and writing by the end of primary school. As small
as these averages are it is even worse in rural towns. (25) Eight out of every ten dollars spent on
a university education in Ethiopia is supported by the government. Ethiopia strongly suggests
that by shifting more resources to lower levels of education, governments might improve the
desire of house hold spending for even higher education without harming the service sector of
the economy.
By shifting more resources to lower levels of education, governments might stimulate more
household spending for higher education, without threatening the growth of the tertiary sector.
Over the past few years Ethiopia has increased the spending on education by roughly 6 percent
each year according to the UN. Ethiopia has realized the more money put into education the
better it will be for them as a nation. Overall Ethiopia spends 5 percent of their gross domestic
product on education, this is the second most compared to North America and Europe at 5.3
percent (9). Currently, they are putting decent amounts of money into the education system, but
are not equally dispersing it. Only one third of the regions countries are given the money and it is
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commonly given to the populated urban areas, leaving out all remotely rural establishments. Still
half of all children do not complete their primary education. This has brought up questions of
equality as only the money is being dispersed in certain regions. Ethiopia is stepping up to
improve their quality, and access of education through money, but sadly many areas are still
struggling, especially rural areas. Families living in a rural location are twice more likely to be
out of school than urban families (9). Furthermore, children from the wealthiest 20% of the
population are 4 times more likely to be in school than the poorest 20%.
The demographic group of ages of five to thirteen year olds in Sub-Sahara, specifically Ethiopia,
is expected to grow by 34 percent over the next thirty years. The government next steps might
possibly include strengthening the numbers of schools and teachers as they must make room for
77 million new students (25).

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Case study Philippines

The Philippines is yet another country that is dealing with the world issue of lack of education
access, as well as quality. Benigno Aquino III is the former president of the Philippines before
being barred form re-seeking the May 2016 election May. The role of education is widely
recognised for improving the economy and the country as a whole. Specifically, education can
help create more human capital. Essentially when the amounts of people educated are high the
GDP is usually high as well. This is strangely not the case in the Philippians. The Philippians
GDP is still in decline while the education levels are still being attained(32).
This might suggest that the problem in the Philippines has been the quality of education, rather
than its availability or accessibility. Of the children who are not in school it could possibly be
because children and adolescents may get involved in hazardous work; become vulnerable to the
risks of trafficking and early marriage, and later on be forced to drop out from school.(4)
Around 2011 the county started to change from its basic educational system to a kindergarten to
grade 12 systems (16). The transition period between the ten year system to the 12 year will be
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complete during the end of the 2016-2017 school year. This will be the new graduation date for
the first new student who made it through the system.
One of the conflicts that contribute to this problem is the divide between the upper and lower
class. The upper class can afford to send their kids to private schools where the lower class
cannot (15). There is a defined difference in quality of education as the children who get their
education in formal private school are more likely to get better jobs. Once again the lower class
stays in the lower economic group, and daily this divide is getting stronger. This is not good for
the economy as the middle class is shrinking, making consumers more and more scarce.
The quality of Philippine education has been on the decline for roughly twenty five years (23).
Currently, there are 17 million students enrolled in the county this year. The annual population
growth rate is 2.3 percent; some 1.7 million babies are born every year (26). These children will
eventually claim their piece of educational rights, which will be difficult for the weak system.
Currently the number of existing schools is too low to accommodate the new waves of children.
This will be challenging as there is also a lack of teachers and needed school supplies.

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Syria
Another example of how access to education is being deprived is in the country of Syria.
Although Syria is also a third world country, however it is very different from all of other
examples previously discussed. Syria is currently in chaos because they are in the midst of a civil
war.
Syria is located in Western Asia. Syrian territory borders Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to
the west, Turkey to the North, Iraq to the East, Jordan to the South, and Israel to the Southwest.
Syrias president is Bashar al-Assad. Has been in power since July 10 2000, when he was elected
president succeeding his father Hafez al-Assad who ruled earlier for 30 years and died in office.
Currently, under the power of Bashar al-Assad European Council on Foreign Relations report
found that the Syrian economy is in ruins. Most people live well below the poverty line. The
human development index has fallen back to where it was 37 years ago and it is estimated that it
will take about 30 years to recover Syrias 2011 GDP value (27). One of the countries that is
currently struggling with lack of education systems is Syria. One of the main factors that have
contributed to Syrias down fall in the economy is the Syrian civil war. Assads crackdown in
March 2011 helped spark a civil war in the country. The government, ISIS, rebel groups, and
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Kurds are all involved in the war as well as nations outside the country trying to end the violence
such as the United States. Multiple countries are accepting refuges from Syria and offering the
people refuge from violence (27). Countries like this include Germany, Canada, Turkey,
Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. Syria is currently in chaos and is presently a worn torn area. Not only
is violence an issue but also the effects violence is having on Syria as a community. Syrian
education is on the downfall as the children and/or parents dont feel its a safe thing to do as
there have been multiple bombings and/or incidents where children have been harmed at school
or education centres. Since the start of the civil war in Syria at the start of 2011 fewer than three
million children have been able to go to school (27). Currently, one in five schools in Syria have
been shut down do to war conditions. Thousands of schools have been destroyed, while others
are being used to shelter people in need. Schools lack books, desks, and sanitation properties,
and in multiple areas teachers have fled. This is a problem as the next generations of Syrians will
possibly be uneducated as well thousands of children who and do not have the right to education
right now, none the less a quality one. Children who bravely still go to school in Syria must
travel to and from school and study in a community at war, with the chaos that comes with it. In
Al-Raqqa, Idlib, Aleppo, Deir Azzour, Hama, and Darraa, war torn areas the education systems
have for the most part collapsed. The schools attendance is far below 50 percent and Idlib lost 25
percent of their schools. Aleppo lost roughly 13 percent and their attendance is less than 30
percent. Before the civil war the rate of primary school enrolment had passed 90 percent. Sadly
the Syrian civil war has not spared education (27). Education systems as well as educational
facilities, education in general is suffering in Syria. In areas where school buildings remain
standing, security reasons often leave parents feeling reluctant to send their kids to schools as
living in war zones is often extremely dangerous. As well, children who do attend class have
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realized that they are not able to strive anymore due to psychological conditions of living in war
that compromise their potential to thrive in school. Children are being denied access to
education as teachers, facilities, and materials are hard to access and find. However, there are
solutions to some of these problems. Some of the solutions that are taking place right now
include sending some of the Syrians outside of the county to seek refuge in other countries. A
few of Syrias neighbouring countries have taken them in such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and
Iraq. In Jordan, a Back to School campaign called on educators and also community and
religious leaders to promote school enrolment. Summer camps in Lebanon have helped Syrian
children overcome the language barriers they face in Lebanese classrooms, where mathematics
and science are taught in English or French. As well UNICEFs ongoing emergency response in
Iraq, local children have also helped out, raising enough money to buy school supplies for their
Syrian class mates in the new Arbat refugee camp (12).

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International Organizations
Currently there are a number of organizations involved in providing education in developing
countries. UNICEF is an example of an organization that will help in these situations. UNICEF
stands for United Nations International Childrens Fund and was founded in 1947. Their
objective is to improve childrens lives. They have multiple programs that have the ability to
reach out to different needs of children over the whole world.
Currently, right now the United Nations international childrens fund is at work in Syria and in
neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel. (12). UNICEF is at
work by trying to keep maintaining schools in Syria so children who can come to school have a
school to go to. They also train teachers in bordering counties to be prepared for the thousands of
Syrian refugees.
UNICEF also supports the Philippine Governments direction of broadening access to quality
childhood education as well as universal kindergarten. UNICEF hopes to improve the early
childhood education in the Philippines and give people who do not have access to education a
way (12). One of the issues which can be faced over in the Philippines is that school costs can
add up and less fortunate families cant always afford to send their kids to school.

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Canadian Feed the Children is another organization that is addressing this problem. They claim
that Education is the single best investment in prosperous, healthy and equitable societies. And
to help solve the problem they spread awareness. Their vision is to improve access to education
at four levels.
1. Early childhood care & education: care and stimulation for children in the critical first
six years of life.
2. Primary education: attendance and graduation from primary grades to improve later
earning potential and food security.
3. Agricultural training: increases the adults ability to produce, purchase and consume
healthy food.
4. Capacity building: supporting community-led advocacy for education, especially for
girls, and educational policy-making at the local, regional and country level.
Feed the Children believes after these steps have been taken they as a developing country can
begin improving the economy and bettering the nation.
Another tool that notifies on this demanding issue is the media. The topic lack of education
systems in developing nations can be linked to the media. Media has done a fantastic job of
promoting the issue of the lack of education systems in developing nations. The media has
helped create websites, Facebook pages, and even videos talking about the issue and what we
can do to help (20).
An example of one of the many organizations that is helping aid to break to the cycle of poor
quality of education and or access in developing countries includes Compassion for Kids.
Compassion for Kids is an organization who reaches out to children whose families cant support
them in multiple ways. First of all, they will have access to Christian teachings, healthcare,
hygiene, and supplementary food along with educational opportunities (20). Specifically,
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educational opportunities will be increased through money sent to help buy proper attire and
school supplies as well as provide the child with access to schools with teachers and or
transportation. Through this specific organization over 1.6 million children have been sponsored
and are experiencing quality education as well an access if already had (20). As one of the
worlds leading child development organizations, Compassion partners with the local church in
26 countries to end poverty in the lives of children and their families. This is one of
Compassions mission statements. Canada is tied through this organization as one of their head
offices is located in London, Ontario. As well as, the opportunities we as Canadians have to
donate or sponsor a child to help improve their quality and access through multiple organizations
that aim to better the education system.

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Ties back to Canada

Lack of education, as well as, poor education quality, in developing countries is an unfortunate
but important issue. Lack of education as well as poor quality education in developing countries
can be proven to connect back to Canada as a country through Canadian teachers going over to
third world nations to help train or be teachers. As well as Canadas investments and the other
countries in developing nations could have the potential to help Canada and the world globally.
Also Canada has similar issues in education an example of this is Attawapiskat , one of the
reserves.
An example of how Canada is linked to the issue lack of access to education and or quality to
education is through teachers who have gone over to developing nations to help train other
teachers as well as teach themselves. Some teachers go over to teach English and or other
subjects that are hard to find teachers for. An additional example of Canadians work in
developing nations is through the Canadian schools that raise and donate money to building
schools in developing nations. Quite a few schools across Canada have raised money for
building safe schools in developing nations.
Canada is linked for the most part in a positive way as Canada recognizes the issue and its
citizens are helping to improve education on all fronts.
Another example of ties back to Canada is looking at this issue from the perspective in our own
nation. Attawapiskat, meaning People of the parting of the rocks is an isolated first nation
reserve located in Kenora District in northern Ontario, Canada. The people there are currently

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facing the same problems multiple developing countries are facing in regards to access and
quality of education (3).
In May 2000 the first nation reserve was required to close its elementary school due to safety
needs for renovations. The money they were given was then used to build eight double and three
single portable classrooms. The facilities were basic, with none of the supplementary resources
accessible to schools in other parts of the province (3). This is similar to the issues that are
plaguing Africa, and specifically Ethiopia. The money and resources are not being dispersed
evenly throughout the nation, and sadly we are seeing parallels to this in our own country.
The Nakogee School was created in the 1970s and opened in 1976. The Nakogee School was
closed on May 11, 2000, due to site contamination and health problems that were credited to an
immense diesel leak at the site that occurred in 1979 (3).A new school was promised by the
Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs in the summer of 2000, but no steps were taken to
achieving this until August 2014.

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Access to education in developing nations with a focus on quality

Solutions
Access and quality of education is a pressing problem in developing countries and is starting to
be resolved slowly as it is a world recognized issue. Solutions that could possibly solve this issue
include giving teachers quality training and respective education and keeping supplies and school
buildings safe and up to date. If countries would properly dispense the money they are giving to
the education systems in their country it could help their education system as a whole. Some
counties do put a fair amount of money in to their education systems but do not disperse the
money equally among the nation, with most of the money is going to the bigger cities. In return,
the rural areas are suffering. Education should be accessible to all children. Children living in
poverty in rural areas need education to help break this cycle and this cannot be done when
governments dont put proper amounts of money and time into education systems and quality. In
short, one of the many solutions that could slowly help solve this large issue includes dispersing
money put into education evenly across the nation.
Another possible solution that could slowly help solve this issue includes paying teachers better
wages and giving the teachers quality education. In many third world countries teachers are not
paid well and what they make cannot sustain them. In other countries the wages only cover the
teachers transportation to get to the school. If teachers in developing countries are paid better
the incentive to become a teacher in a developing county might be higher which would solve the
problems arising from a lack of interest in the profession. If teachers in developing countries got
a better education and were prepared to be a teacher the quality of education could go up do to

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Access to education in developing nations with a focus on quality

the fact the teachers have a more in depth understanding of what their teaching as well as
developing their personal leadership skills to have the ability to successfully teach children.
Yet another long term solution to this problem might include buying good supplies and offering
stable/appropriate places of learning for students that meet safety standards. If the government
increases the amount of schools as well as the individual facilities to get them up to safety codes
it would increase interest and willingness of parents to allow their children to study. Also,
purchasing up-to-date textbooks and learning tools can possibly increase interest and promote the
value of education.
Lastly, another solution that could potentially help children in war torn areas is to keep schools
open and to the best of the schools ability, keep it safe. This can include involving community
members, or placing soldiers near education facilities. The neighboring countries could also have
secure buildings in place, with teachers ready and equipped to handle the refugees coming in
who would all have different levels of education.
An example of a country that has an impressive access to education is Cuba. Cuba is still
considered a developing country because of its low GDP rates but is currently on the cusp of
becoming developed. Cuba has free education for all of its citizens and is a priority. This has
been working out well for the country of Cuba as they are doing well as a county. In return a
price will be paid as no matter the academic status achieved by the students they will make the
same amount of money as someone who did minimal schooling. It is an advantage to Cuba as
citizens will only specialize in a field they feel skilled and passionate about. One of the
disadvantages includes having the citizens who got a higher education and work tougher jobs

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make the same amount of money as others who did the bare minimum. There is no reward
system. There are multiple advantages and disadvantages for possible solutions to this problem.

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